“No one ever talks about that and it makes me furious,” she told EFE when she was asked about the usual absence of Latin actors at the Oscars ceremony.

“When I was nominated, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington had won the previous year,” added the 50-year-old actress, as the absence of Afro-American actors was at the center of controversies in Oscars previous editions, in 2015 and 2016.

"Everyone talked about Afro-Americans in the Oscars. And that year (I was nominated), there was Pedro Almodovar, Gael Garcia Bernal, Alfonso Cuaron... I was the first Hispanic nominated in history in the Best Actress category — the first Latin actress was Brazilian Fernanda Montenegro — but here no one said anything.”

Hayek was the first Mexican actress to earn an Oscar nomination for playing the lead role in the 2002 film "Frida" — about artist Frida Kahlo's life. Only two other Latin actresses have been recognized by the Academy since then: Spanish-born Penelope Cruz and Colombian Catalina Sandino Moreno.

A recent study — published, on July 31, by the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism — found that out of the 900 successful Hollywood movies made in the past decade, only one had a Latina director.

Additionally, half of the 100 hits from the past year did not star one single Spanish-speaking character.